The Bruins shouldn’t need any reminders that they need Jeremy Swayman, and need him sooner rather than later. Their team is incomplete without him, which is why they still have $8.6 million in cap space waiting to be used mostly or entirely on him.
If the Bruins do need any reminders, they may be getting them this preseason. The idea that Boston’s goaltending will be just fine without Swayman for one or two months or even the whole season is getting harder to believe as the Bruins get subpar play between the pipes one preseason game after another.
The trend continued Thursday night, with Brandon Bussi giving up four goals on 32 shots in a 5-2 loss to the New York Rangers. None of the goals were truly soft, but two of them did come off rebounds that weren’t controlled, something that has been an issue for Bussi in both of his preseason appearances and has been a knock on him at times in the AHL, too.
Bussi got beat twice over the glove in his first preseason start on Sunday, with the second one in particular a good but savable shot. Fellow AHLer Michael DiPietro has also yet to look NHL-ready. He has given up three goals in a pair of half-game appearances – one on a bad-angle shot, one on a net-front scramble after he couldn’t cover a loose puck, and one off a juicy rebound of his own.
Joonas Korpisalo did look good in his 30 minutes of action on Tuesday, it has to be noted. He only faced seven shots, but he stopped all of them and three or four were of the high-danger variety. He controlled rebounds and looked calm and composed in a way that Bussi and DiPietro have not.
That is encouraging when it comes to the question of whether or not Korpisalo can bounce back from a rough season in Ottawa and be a good backup to Swayman. Relying on Korpisalo to be a workhorse No. 1 for any period of time would still seem to be a shaky proposition, though. His best NHL seasons have come when he was in more of a platoon or backup role.
None of this is to say that Bruins general manager Don Sweeney needs to cave and give Swayman whatever he wants. But he should at least be making sure the ball is in Swayman and his agent’s court.
Since the end of last season, I and many others have been of the belief that an eight-year deal worth something right around $8 million a year makes all the sense in the world. With reports that both sides still want a long-term deal but could be off that $8 million mark by $1.5 million or so in their respective directions, it still makes sense that they could ultimately meet there.
Heck, even Ryan Whitney of Barstool’s Spittin’ Chiclets podcast, who acknowledges he is pro-player and no friend of Sweeney (especially after Sweeney mocked the podcast as the “Spit Up on Yourself Podcast” last week), said this week that he believes $8-8.2 million per year would get this deal done, but that “it seems like that’s not on the table on the Bruins’ end.”
If it’s not, it should be. That’s a reasonable number based on other recent goalie contracts, and one the Bruins can still fit under the cap. That is not the less reasonable $9.5-10 million Swayman was reportedly asking for. At least put $8 million on the table and put the pressure on Swayman and his agent, Lewis Gross. If they want to reject a fair deal and drag this out, let them lose the PR battle. Right now, fair or not, Sweeney is the one widely seen as being on the wrong side of that battle.
Sweeney said last week that he was “optimistic” that he would be able to get a deal done with Swayman before Dec. 1. He picked that date because it is the day Swayman would need to sign by to be eligible to play this season, but it also came across as a bit of a negotiating ploy, a sign that he is willing to remain patient.
That’s great, but the reality is that the Bruins may not be able to afford to wait until Dec. 1. This is a team built from the back out. Their strength is supposed to be their defense and goaltending. They are not the Colorado Avalanche or Edmonton Oilers or Toronto Maple Leafs, teams that bottomed out and were able to add multiple top-five picks up front as they rebuilt.
If goaltending is suddenly not a strength – or worse, a weakness – the Bruins could find themselves falling behind early in the season. Their first month is not going to be easy, with eight of their 11 October games coming against teams that were in the playoffs last year.
That is a challenging enough slate with Swayman in net. Without him, and with new players finding their footing and perhaps a rookie or two being incorporated into the lineup, a slow start could be a real possibility. The Bruins would have time to overcome it, but you don’t want to be playing catch-up, and you can’t just assume you’ll be a playoff team no matter what.
For some perspective, Swayman and the now-departed Linus Ullmark were worth 17 standing points above replacement last season, according to Evolving-Hockey. Using that formula, if the Bruins had gotten replacement-level goaltending last year, they would have made the playoffs by just one point, leaving no margin for error. Replacement-level goaltending may very well be what they have if Swayman’s absence lingers into the regular season.
Swayman has now missed more days of training camp than David Pastrnak did in 2017 or Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo did in 2019 when they were all in similar situations. He is one of just two restricted free agents who remain unsigned this year, but the other – St. Louis’ Nikita Alexandrov – has at least been participating in camp on a professional tryout.
The Bruins are now just a week and a half away from opening the regular season against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. If Swayman is going to start that game, a deal probably has to be finalized by early next week so he can get a week of practice and at least one preseason game to get ready.
It’s time for the Bruins to get their No. 1 goalie on the ice. If they don’t, they will begin their season by playing with fire.